Installing on Docker Compose

Install HCL™ Accelerateon Docker Compose container orchestrator.

About this task

Install HCL™ Accelerate on Docker Compose container orchestrator. Docker Compose is allowed for Proof of concepts such as trails or test environment. HCL does not support Docker Compose in production environments.

Note: Secure values stored in a JSON file are automatically added to the home directory of the user installing the product. The directory is hidden and should not be modified or removed by the user. Because the values are located in the user's home directory, future upgrades must be performed by the user of the original installation. The encryption key encrypts the secure values in the JSON file. If a user uses the default encryption key when installing the product, future upgrades should proceed normally. If a non-default encryption key is provided for the initial installation, the user must also provide that encryption key for future upgrades. The values stored in the hidden directory are accessed by the installer on any future upgrades, and changes to the secure values will prevent upgraded instances from accessing existing data.
Prerequisite
  1. Consult the system requirements and ensure you have identified an environment that meets HCL™ Accelerate needs. See system requirements.
  2. Get an access key. The key enables you to complete installation. Visit the HCL™ Accelerate web portal to obtain your key. After completing the form, you will receive a confirmation email with an access key. Store the key in a readily-available location for using it during installation.
  3. MongoDB Download (Applicable for Offline installation only) Before starting the installation, pull the MongoDB images from the MongoDB sources. Complete the following steps to pull the MongoDB images. If you are using the online install, then this step is completely automatically.
    1. Run the docker pull mongo:<mongodb_version_number> && docker save -o mongo.tar mongo:<mongodb_version_number> command to pull image for MongoDB.
      Note: For more information about compatible versions of MongoDB, see system requirements page.
    2. Copy the mongo.tar to offline installation system and run the docker load -i mongo.tar command to load the docker images.

Installation

The installation instructions describe installing the product on all supported operating systems. The downloaded executable file steps you through the installation process and sets your installation parameters.

Procedure

  1. Download the installation file for your environment. Installation files are available in two locations,

    Location 1: Visit the FlexNet download center and select the file for your environment.

    Location 2:
  2. Run the downloaded executable file.
    Note: For macOS and Linux installations, set the appropriate permissions before running the file: sudo chmod +x.
    Note: HCL™ Accelerate does not perform malware scanning on the installed files. It is recommended that end users implement malware scanning as appropriate for their environment before installing and running the HCL™ Accelerate in their environment.
  3. Complete installation by responding to the prompts described in the following steps.
    1. At the Please enter your HCL Accelerate access key prompt, enter your access key retrieved in the prerequisites.
    2. At the Do you accept the license? [Y,n] To continue the installation process, you must accept the license prompt, enter Y to continue the installation process.
    3. At the Enter your encryption key or leave blank to use the default. Key must be at least 8 characters prompt, enter your encryption key or leave blank to use the default encryption key.
      Note: The encryption key must be at least 8 characters. Save the encryption key to use for further upgrades.
    4. At the Choose the platform prompt, select Docker Compose (Evaluation only).
    5. At the Enter the location where the HCL Accelerate files will be installed prompt, enter the location where you want to install the product files.
      Files are copied to the specified directory in a subdirectory named product_version_number.
    6. At the Enter path to the folder containing your "server.crt" and "server.key" files or leave blank to use default prompt, enter the location where you saved the server.crt and server.key certificate files or leave blank to use the default folder.
      Note: The self-signed SSL certificate is generated with the duration of two years. You can locate the certificate in conf/ssl of the installation directory.
      Note: You can configure your SSL certificate later by following the steps in the Advanced Usage section.
    7. At the Enter the initial password for the admin user prompt, enter your admin password.
      Note: The initial password for the admin user is encrypted and stored in .yml file.
    8. At the Please enter the hostname where you will run HCL Accelerate prompt, enter the host name where users can access the Web UI.
      The default value is localhost.

      The host name must resolve to a name on your DNS server, or in the server's hosts file. On Linux, the file location is etc/hosts; on Windows, the location is C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.

    9. At the Enter the desired port where HCL Accelerate will run prompt, enter the port number for the Web UI.
      The default value is 443.
    10. At the Do you want to start HCL Accelerate now? prompt, enter Y to start the HCL™ Accelerate.
      Note: You can enter N to start the HCL™ Accelerate at your convenience.
    11. (Applicable for Offline installation only) At the Enter the URL of a remote docker registry to push images, otherwise leave blank prompt, specify one of the following options.
      1. (Default) Local File System: Copy images to the file system and manually load them into the local Docker registry.
      2. Local Docker Registry: Load images into the local Docker registry. This requires the Docker client on the host where the installation script is running.
      3. Remote Docker Registry: Load images into the local Docker registry, and then tag the images and push them to a remote Docker registry. This requires the Docker client on the host where the installation script is running. The images are loaded on the local host.
  4. HCL™ Accelerate is installed successfully.
  5. Run the server by changing to the directory where you installed the product, and start Docker Compose. For example: 
    [installation folder] docker-compose up -d
    Note: Selecting Y in step 3.b starts the server.
  6. Access the HCL™ Accelerate Web UI. The URL is https://hostname:port, where hostname and port are the values that you set during installation. The initial username is admin and the default password is what you specified in this step.

What to do next

Advanced usage

Installation properties

Installation properties are stored in the [installation_folder]/docker-compose/.env file. You can edit the properties appropriate for your environment. The env file contains a description for all installation properties, including the following properties:
Access_Key
The product access key obtained earlier.
NGINX_HOST
The domain of the URL the users will use to access HCL™ Accelerate. The value is usually the hostname of the virtual machine where Docker Compose is running.

SSL certificates

To complete installation, replace the supplied SSL public certificate and private key with your own copies. You can use OpenSSL to generate your own key with a command similar to the following example:
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 365 -out certifcate.pem

Place your self-generated key and certificate in the [installation folder/product_version_number/conf/ssl folder.

Silent install When the script starts, you are prompted to accept the license. You can explicitly accept the license without viewing it by appending the following parameter to the command:
./<Accelerate-installation-file>--license=accept